


10:23 P.M.

by SassySarah



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy hates the dentist, Darcy makes Steve laugh and it's everything, F/M, First Words, I'm completely ignoring Civil War in this one, No Timeline, Not Beta Read, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, and kind of Age of Ultron too, i love these two, science calls to Jane, steve is a sweetheart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 01:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6780223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassySarah/pseuds/SassySarah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy gets a little free with her fantasies when she's high and Steve is a polite sweetheart who doesn't mind a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	10:23 P.M.

**Author's Note:**

> Another little soulmate au, I really do love them. I should be working on a paper for school and instead I am posting this little bit I wrote last week. I have zero motivation for the paper :(

It was a well known fact that Captain America did not have a soulmate. Steve had hoped for years as a child for his words to come, but by the time he met Bucky at age 9, he’d given up. Everyone knew you got your words when your soulmate was born, and very few people got words once they were past a certain age. Steve was small and sick and he didn’t blame the universe for not making someone for him. Bucky didn’t have words either, but he still loved the stories about soulmates finding each other, still loved to hear about when people got their words. He still had hope that he and Steve would get words someday.

Steve just thought it’d be nice to maybe meet a dame who was blank and try to make a life that way, but even blank girls didn’t want to give him a chance. Bucky had more luck, but he wasn’t interested in settling down. Once he’d been selected for the serum, Steve wondered if it would make a difference. Maybe his body was just too weak for the words to come? Maybe they would appear as his body changed? It was a theory he heard whispered, but nobody ever said it to his face and Steve wasn’t going to get his hopes up. After, when Dr. Erskine was gone and he was offered a chance to do something (anything), they checked him for words. If he had them it would be a great way to draw people to the shows and if he didn’t, then Steve needn’t be unnecessarily bothered by those hoping to match words.

That Steve Rogers was blank was a fact of life for him. Then his life had ended. By the time he was cognizant once more, that Steve Rogers was blank was a matter of historical record. Of course, the doctors were very thorough upon his waking up and insisted on checking again. They didn’t find anything - Steve wasn’t surprised.

It was getting late when the doctors and scientists were told to call it a night, and he was taken to what Fury called a safe house after Steve refused to sleep in the medical facility. He wanted time alone to wrap his head around things, needed space to process everything he’d been told. Food had been waiting at the house for him, and he hadn’t hesitated in shutting the door in the face of the two agents that were placed outside. He’d been in a cryogenic coma for about 70 years, but Steve was tired. For the first time in his life, he was unsure about whether he could handle the situation he found himself in.

He checked the rest of the small house, choosing the bedroom with the larger bed, and set the duffel of clothes he’d been given down. In the adjoining bathroom, there was still-packaged soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, and razors. The water pressure was weak, but it was hot and he made quick work of a shower. 

He’d pulled on the given “boxers” and was about to pull an undershirt on over his head when he felt the first tingle. He tugged down the shirt and scratched at his left thigh, but the tingling didn’t stop and in fact, felt like it was moving. He reached down again, this time pulling the loose leg of the boxers up to free what he thought had to be a bug. Steve was astonished to find loopy letters appearing in black and then fading away. He watched them, continuously being written and fading for minutes, tingling all the while, until it finally seemed to stop. 

He didn’t say anything to the doctors or Fury. It happened again the following night, and the night after that. Steve noted the tingling would begin at 10:23, on the dot, each night. The fourth night he was ready and waiting with a black marker and mirror, to trace the letters as they appeared. There were a lot of words. They started near the top of his thigh and wrapped around it, moving down in a spiral as they went before ending just below the hem of his boxers. The writing was feminine, and Steve didn’t know what to think of the words themselves. The woman - his apparent soulmate - was certainly brash and very forthcoming with her opinion of him. The first part tugged at his heart a bit, but he’d been blushing by the end. She was a very modern woman, from the looks of things. Steve found himself smiling for the first time since he’d woken up.

He still didn’t tell anyone. They’d want to document it and he’d had enough of that. They’d have questions about why the words would form and disappear - he thought they came at the same time every night because that must be her time of birth. If he told them, there would undoubtedly be more tests and Steve was done with those. The would-be mark, his soulmate’s words - he wanted them to himself. S.H.I.E.L.D was setting themselves up to run his life in this new century and he accepted he might need the help right now, but he promised himself that they wouldn’t touch her. He would keep her to himself.

__

 

Darcy Lewis had been born with her words, though they hadn’t been legible at her time of birth, which wasn’t unusual. Lots of girls were born with their words, or got them within a year or two. Her mom had been pleased that her daughter’s soulmate was so polite when Darcy was 3 and the words had finally gotten big enough to actually read. Darcy grew up being told how great her words were, that she was so lucky to have a nice mark, how polite her soulmate was, and that it was wonderful that they would have a mutual friend of the female persuasion, because all those things meant that he was going to be a good soulmate. Darcy knew not everyone had a soulmate that the world looked so favorably upon.

There had never been any doubt in Darcy’s mind - she’d be just like the girls in movies and TV shows, living happily ever after with her soulmate. She had scripted and memorized her response by the time she was 7 so that her soulmate would also have a nice set of words on him as he got older and his mom would be happy she was also polite. She’d sat down with her mom and decided she would reply with, “Thank you so much! I’m Darcy, I really appreciate your help”, and she would, of course, smile her biggest smile.

Darcy’s heart burned with happiness and envy when her best friend met her soulmate at age 17 while visiting a college campus. She hoped she would meet her soulmate soon. Abbie said Evan was everything she’d hoped for, complete with dark hair and green eyes and he was just the perfect height for her to lay her head on his shoulder. They talked on the phone a lot. Darcy wanted her soulmate to be tall, but not too tall - because she was only 5’4, and she wanted him to be skinny, because she’d been teased for being chubby ever since she’d hit puberty, and she wanted him to have blonde hair because hers was dark, but blue eyes like her. Abbie said Evan played football and was very muscular, and Darcy could appreciate a good body like the next girl, but she didn’t want her soulmate to be wasting time working out when he could be with her instead, so she hoped he was more artistic than athletic. Darcy was disappointed when she finished her first year of college and still hadn’t made a friend named Jane. How was she ever going to meet her soulmate if she didn’t meet the friend that would cause them to meet? She was ready for her happy-ever-after.

Finally though, she’d lucked out. She’d been forced to apply for Dr. Foster’s internship in order to meet the science credits requirement while avoiding chemistry, and Dr. Foster was a woman named Jane. Darcy hadn’t been sure if she was the right Jane, but then Thor had happened and Darcy decided she had to be the right Jane, because she loved her and she couldn’t just go back to a normal life. So Darcy followed Jane around the world, got into more crazy shit, and finally found herself at the newly-remodeled Avengers Facility in New York.

Where, at the current moment, she was really not happy. A few years traveling around Europe with Jane had resulted in few and far between dental appointments, partly because Darcy was terrified of the dentist and partly because she and Jane weren't exactly rolling in dough. Stark was great, footing the bill to knock her out while they did a deep cleaning so she didn’t have to be awake and hyperventilating the whole time, but she just hated the dentist. Plus Jane was cranky with her because she had to take a break from the lab to be there to escort her back to her suite, but who else was she going to ask? Darcy was out before the commotion started.

___

 

Steve was walking out of medical when he heard shouting from the dentist’s office.

“You don’t understand! I NEED TO GO TO THE LAB. I will come back for Darcy after I check this, but I need to check it, ok?! DO YOU NOT SEE THE BLINKING RED LIGHT?? That’s not good!”

“Ma’am, I understand you’re upset, but you need to calm down. You’re disturbing patients and doctors alike. You consented to being Ms. Lewis’ escort, and you need to be here.”

Labs and blinking red lights were probably more Tony’s area, but he needed to make sure nothing was going to blow up or otherwise harm people in the building. Just as Steve stepped into the lobby, a short woman standing in front of the desk let out a frustrated yell. He cleared his throat and both Tyler, who he’d met last week after coming in for a cleaning, and the woman turned to look at him.

“Captain Rogers, thank God. Maybe you can talk to this crazy woman. She won’t listen to me, even though I explained the rules before Ms. Lewis’s appointment began,” said Tyler, glaring at the woman.

“I AM NOT-”

“I will call security and-”

“WHAT is the problem?” Both Tyler and the woman fell quiet, and Steve directed his attention to the woman. “Ma’am, my name is Steve Rogers. I heard something about a lab - is everything okay?”

“I’m Dr. Jane Foster, and no, things are not okay! I need to check something in my lab, and my friend Darcy needs an escort after her appointment, but I really NEED to check this,” she said as she shoved a piece of electrical-looking equipment in his direction. There was, indeed, a blinking red light. If he remembered right, this had to be Thor’s lady.

“Is there a danger if you don’t check this right now?”

“No.” A look that Steve had seen on Tony’s face slid across Dr. Foster’s for a moment. “Well, I don’t think so. I mean, nothing will blow up or catch fire or anything.” Another look. “Probably.” Steve knew better than to trust that and was about to say so when Dr. Foster continued, casting a speculative look at him. “I would ask you to check it out, Steve, but Thor says you’re not much for science and you wouldn’t know what you’re doing anyway, BUT if you stayed here and waited for Darcy then I could go and everything will be fine!” 

“Ah, I’m not really sure -”

“It will be totally fine. Darcy’s been wanting to meet you - well, Captain America, but still, and I know she’ll be safe with you, and I really need to check this, so thanks! Darcy should be able to tell you where our suite is, okay, great, bye!” 

Steve was quick, but he was a little in awe of how Dr. Foster seemed to dart from the room in a flash. He shook his head and looked to Tyler. “Well I guess I’m waiting for Miss Lewis now.”

“I told you she was crazy, Captain.”

Steve frowned. “She’s not crazy, she’s a scientist who’s working on instantaneous deep-space travel. And insulting people is not a good tactic when you’re trying to keep them calm.”

“Of course, Captain Rogers.” Tyler looked down, thoroughly abashed, and then excused himself to inform the dentist of the situation.

Ten minutes later, Steve was led to Darcy’s space because she was “pretty wobbly and could use the help walking”. She was still sitting in the chair and looked fairly dazed when the dentist left for his lunch break, adding “she’ll be fine after a couple hours of sleep” on his way out.

Steve moved into the room, catching her attention. “Miss Lewis? Your friend Jane sent me to help you.”

Her eyes got impossibly wide and her mouth fell open a little. “Oh my God, it’s you. You’re huge! This is so crazy, I can’t believe Steve Rogers is my soulmate. God, I always wanted a little guy and you did used to be skinny, but look at your arms! Do you have to spend a lot of time in the gym? Cause that’d be a bummer, I mean, I have always had a wall fantasy and man, I bet you could just lift me up and fuck me no problem, but dude, I’m gonna have to invest in some heels so we can kiss properly and -” Her hand came up over her mouth.

“Uhh…” was all Steve could think to say. Why hadn’t he ever thought of what he would say back to her?! Her other hand rose to cover her eyes.

“Oh my God. Did I just? Are those? Oh my God I can’t believe I just said all that, I’m so sorry.” He hated that she was embarrassed, especially because he’d always thought the monologue was pretty cute and sexy, though it did make more sense now that he knew she was a little goofy.

“Hey, no, it’s okay.” He moved to crouch beside her and gently uncovered her face. Her eyes were watery. “I am so happy to meet you, Darcy, and I love my words. You can have some water and a nap and we’ll talk after, how does that sound?”

“Really?” He nodded. “Okay. And Steve? I am totally going to punch Jane later.”

He laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Headcanon for what happens after : Darcy wakes up, doesn't remember much, Steve gives her the basics and they begin their happily-ever-after after they talk and Steve says "I am not opposed to wall activities" :)


End file.
